At what point is it not tattle tale but...

Post Reply New Topic

I've done 144 in a 100 zone. Would you have called the cops?

I've done 144 in a 100 zone. Would you have called the cops?

I don't actually know if I would or not. It now occurs to me that you are using kilometers where I am using miles. I don't know if 144 kmh in a 100kmh zone is something that would visually look to me like speeding. I just have no sense of the scale. When I said "If I see you driving past me at 110 I will call the cops" I meant 110 miles per hour. The top legal speed limit in the U.S. is 65 mph. The difference between that and 110 is really obvious. But I don't know what 144 kmh would look like. I can only think in miles.

There was an episode of the BBC comedy sci-fi series Red Dwarf were one of the characters was detained on a "justice world" prison space station. On this space station your mind is scanned for guilt of crimes you have willingly committed in your entire lifetime. And if you succeeded in getting away with them you would have to serve out a prison sentance on board the station. While you were an inmate in the prison any crime you committed was then inflicted on you. So if you set fire to something, you would be set fire too. If you stole something you would loose something.

I guess I found the concept of living in a world were the word of law was enforced so strictly ironically had a significant impact on a human being's quality of life. It was an intriuging way of looking at the morals and ethics of law its enforcement and what is conisdered to be true justice.

No, but there's really no point because if the police don't see it themselves, and can't prove it, they can't really do anything anyway.



In your town, and mine, probably, but New York? LA? Detroit? Chicago? Not as likely. Keep in mind that in some cultures today, any sort of reporting is considered "ratting." I live in a town of twelve thousand. Ten years ago, a young man was clubbed to death on the side of a road, with a golf club, from a moving van. While most in this town were not there and didn't see it, there are dozens of people here who know who did. Not one has come forward, and the killers have never been arrested. Makes me want to throttle the few of them I do know who know who it was. Heck, the cops have even told me they know who it was, but they haven't been able to collect enough evidence.



Really? I don't hear stories like that. I'm not going to tell you I've been an angel all of my life, but these days, I have no friends that would even think of doing anything like that, so I don't need to worry about it. Any family members would never tell me, because I think they know I would tell them to return the stuff and turn themselves in before I did. Yeah. I'm dead serious about that. If I hear about it, my kids will, and that's NOT the lesson I will let them learn from anybody that comes into my home. I don't care WHO they are.



I would approach him first, and give him the same choice I would a family member. "Turn yourself in, and get the help you need, or I will."

Reporting crimes is not tattling. Tattling is a childish maneuver designed solely to get somebody in trouble. Tattling isn't about doing what's right. It's about getting something over on someone. Doing the right thing isn't about that. Tattling is about reporting someone because of some warped sense of personal gain a person gets out of it. Adult tattlers don't report things like stealing a neighbor's property. Adult tattlers report things like not liking the tone of your voice when you go to their door to tell them something their child did that was wrong. We have that garbage going on in the complex I live in all the time, and it's sickening. It got so bad one year, the complex manager threatened to start eviction procedures on people who wasted local police time on frivolous complaints.

Cops don't come to my door unless I call them about gun shots in the nearby woods (three times), a neighbor's kid threatening his mother at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night, while trashing their apartment, physical threats to my kids, or anybody here. I'm sure there are people who call me a rat. I don't give a crap. They are the vermin. All I want is for my kids to be safe. If I think you are a threat to their safety, I'll report your ass. If I see you stealing, I'll report your ass. I don't care if anyone else saw it. I did.

As long as it's something the police can actually do something about, I will report it. That isn't tattling. It's just right. Period.

I guess report danger is okay.